Chinese manufacturer Gudsen has gained a very positive reputation amongst shooters of all ranks with their MOZA line of consumer- and professional stabiliser systems.
At CES 2019 in Las Vegas they have revealed their newest addition to their lineup: the MOZA Mini-S – a compact handheld 3-axis smartphone gimbal.
New: MOZA Mini-S Smartphone Gimbal
Clearly Gudsen brought their know-how to bear and created an extremely foldable smartphone gimbal, which is supposed to make transportation easier.
Gudsen also claim to have improved the design over previous gimbals to allow for quicker and easier balancing and setup to give the user more time to be creative.
The handle is slightly slanted forward, which – according to the manufacturer – results in an ergonomically better hand position while operating the gimbal and thus reduces the danger of the hand slipping.
Additional features like short-cut buttons and quick replay, are supposed to simplify the operation while useful functions such as vertical photography and camera control allow you to diversify your mobile filming style and adapt to different scenarios.
MOZA Mini-S Smartphone Gimbal: slanted Design
The MOZA Mini-S features a built-in telescoping pole that extended to a total length of up to 18 inches.
It basically turns the gimbal into a fully stabilised selfie-stick.
This is very useful, when shooting yourself with the front-facing camera.
It also might be a nice feature to get the smartphone to the perfect vantage point using the better quality rear-camera: up high, through fences or windows or over cliffs — but it might be hard to be able to see the phone’s screen in situations like that.
MOZA Mini-S Smartphone Gimbal in Selfie-Stick-Mode
Apart from enabling the user to capture cinematic and smooth footage the MOZA Mini-S also features various shooting modes: hyper-lapse mode, slow-motion mode, inception mode, sport gear mode and vertigo mode.
Inception-mode clearly caught my eye, but I suspect its feature that lets the smartphone rotate around the Z-Axis continuously.
Vertigo mode sounds like the MOZA Mini-S in combination with its software can pull off something known as a »contra-zoom« – zooming out while moving the camera towards a subject — or vice versa.
This has been famously used in Alfred Hitchcocks film »Vertigo« (1958) – thus the name!
The gimbal works with the MOZA Genie App, which is used to configure, control and update the gimbal. It also acts as a camera-app and is available both for iOS and Android.
MOZA Mini-S Smartphone Gimbal with Genie App
It remains to be seen what codec options and professional features will be available in Gudsens own MOZA Genie app and if “pro” video apps like FilmicPro or Mavis will support the gimbal — something that would make the device more interesting for professional use.
The MOZA Mini-S is available in two colours: Black and White.
The MOZA Mini-S is clearly aimed at the consumer market and its built-in selfie stick looks like it could be a lot of fun.
That being said — combined with a capable smartphone the MOZA Mini-S could very well be a useful tool to have especially if the software allows for decent bitrate codecs.
Let us know your opinion in the comments. Are you currently using smartphone gimbals in your professional work? Do you consider using such a device in the future?

Back in 2016, the Timelapse+ VIEW intervalometer was a huge success on Kickstarter (read our coverage here). However, the man behind it, Elijah Parker, doesn’t stop once the product is out of the door. He keeps adding features and extends the range of supported cameras. The highly popular FUJIIFILM X-T3 is now among them.
To pull off a so-called holy grail shot is one of the more complicated things to do when shooting a time lapse. This technique is used to create beautiful day to night transitions (or night to day obviously). Due to the massive change of light, much more dynamic range your camera could possibly handle, you somehow need to adjust camera settings while shooting which is not an easy thing to do.
Timelapse+ VIEW
The VIEW intervalomter by Timelapse+ is a tiny device which makes all of this happen. It analyzes the shots already taken by the camera it is tethered to and adjusts settings over time.
It offers image previews, a histogram and touch free gestures plus a glove-friendly knob on the side. You even can preview your time lapse while the camera is still recording. For this to work you need the accompanying smartphone app for the VIEW. With it you also can program so-called focus ramps. That means you can program focus pulls while shooting a time-lapse. How cool is that?
The FUJIFILM X series of mirrorless cameras, including our mirrorless camera of the year –the FUJIFILM X-T3– is fully supported by the VIEW. The X-T1 X-T2, X-T3, X-Pro2, X-H1 and GFX-50s are all supported for fully automatic Holy Grail time-lapse with the VIEW Intervalometer. When combined with AF-capable lenses the ​X-T2, X-T3, X-Pro2 and X-H1 are supported for the focus ramping feature.
Focus Ramping
Implementing this focus ramping feature for FUJI cameras was a bit of a challenge for Elijah because Canon and Nikon cameras work differently in terms of processing focus data. He needed to come up with a solution which would work on FUJI cameras, too. The process involved some technical terms such as relative and absolute focus commands, limitations in motor movements, issues with accuracy.. you get the idea. In the end he came up with a reliably working solution and that is all that matters, isn’t it?
The Timelapse+ VIEW intervalometer already supports a broad range of DSLR and mirrorless cameras and now the FUJI X series is part of that family. Other popular cameras include the Canon EOS R, the Nikon Z 7 and the Sony A7 III.
The above video is from 2017, featuring the X-T1. Since then, Elijah managed to add support for all the other X series cameras, too. The VIEW is currently $419 (with GPS) or $399 (without GPS).
Links: Timelapse+ | Changelog (GitHub)
Do you already shoot timelapses with your X-T3? What do you think of this intervalometer? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

AirMap, useful airspace inteligence app for drone operators, just introduced a new feature for DJI drones pilots: real-time geofencing alerts. The app will now notify pilots if they are nearby restricted zones, aircrafts and other objects.
As drones are becoming more affordable and capable, the number of drone pilots rapidly increases as well. Hand in hand with this trend, the drones regulations develop too. Most drone operators know there are certain regulations and restrictions when it comes to flying. There are tools which make sticking to these rules easier. One of them certainly is the AirMap app.
Airmap is a global airspace intelligence app with intuitive flight planning tools. The app makes it easy to learn about any airspace environment, plan a flight in accordance with regulations, and maintain awareness of nearby aircraft while in-flight. And it functions anywhere in the world. AirMap has been available for Android and iOS for a while already and it got quite popular among drone pilots. Couple of days ago, the company behind AirMap announced a new important feature – real-time geofencing alerts.
AirMap Real-Time Geofencing Alerts
It happens more often than not, that airspace conditions can change mid-flight and emergency TFRs (temporary flight restrictions) require nearby drone operators to adapt immediately. Other times, a drone may deviate from its planned flight path and get close to regulated or restricted airspace. The exact functioning of this feature is well described in the official release and in the short video:
With Real-Time Geofencing Alerts, AirMap alerts pilots when they are approaching, on the edge of, or intersecting geofenced airspace areas in which drone flight is regulated (orange) or restricted / prohibited (red). If the pilot’s drone’s positioning is less than 30 seconds from entering a new airspace boundary, AirMap displays a warning message onscreen and verbally announces the warning with the appropriate message, like “Approaching Class B airspace.” Real-Time Geofencing Alerts keep pilots aware of impending safety concerns at any time while flying, even when airspace conditions change during their flight.
This new feature is only available for operators of DJI drones with the AirMap for Drones DJI SDK fly mode. The real-time geofencing alerts are turned-on by default in the new version of AirMap. Supported DJI drones:
DJI Inspire 2
DJI Inspire
DJI Matrice
DJI Mavic Pro
DJI Phantom 4 Pro
DJI Phantom 4
DJI Spark
DJI Mavic Air
DJI Mavic 2 Pro
DJI Mavic 2 Zoom
In the near future creators of the app are planning to add more capabilities in real-time geofencing. They plan to include the ability to prevent drones from entering an unsafe operating area or veering off a planned flight path, if the pilot has opted in.
AirMap real-time geofencing alerts are also available to developer partners and OEMs via a mobile SDK for Android and Swift delivering airspace environment status information relative to the drone’s flight path. We might as well see more apps using this feature soon, then.
Do you use AirMap as a drone operator? Did you feel the need for real-time geofencing alerts? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: AirMap

The Cage project management application offers a lot of features that have become standard tools of the trade in online collaboration software. Messaging, task lists, team member management, as well as media file upload and markup features are all on board and implemented quite pleasantly. Recently the Cage project management team has announced an update to their client presentations feature, making it possible to have branded client pages showing off your work to the client and letting them review and approve your work.
Design your own branded presentations for clients with Cage
How does it work?
I was able to create a presentation site for cinema5D, somewhat matching the looks of the site in just a few minutes. You can upload your own logo (or your client’s logo for that matter) and adapt text-alignment, as well as the main color choices, and choose between a few layouts for the files you chose to be displayed in your presentation. You will also get a special login screen for your client, which is a really nice touch.
You can create custom login pages for your clients
Other than that you can set permissions, allowing the client to review the files that are part of the presentation, mainly by posting text comments or adding some shapes or drawn markers. These features of the Cage project management tool are very well implemented and work all the way from your desktop to smaller mobile screens.
Video features and some downsides
You can include videos in your presentations and have them reviewed by the client. However, neither the comments nor the markup is time-coded. This means writing a change request regarding second 0:23 in a clip will require your client to actually write out “0:23 Please change this.” or something similar. In my opinion, the markup features can’t really be used for video: For example, drawing a box around something the client wishes to be masked out, will result in that box staying in that position throughout the runtime of the entire video clip. It seems like these features are geared more towards static image files, where they would be more helpful. We hope that the Cage team can improve the video features, to catch up to similar offerings by Vimeo Pro and Frame.io.
A markup like this will stay throughout the whole video
Personally, I didn’t like the fact that once a client has logged into his presentation with the password you gave him, he still has to sign up with Cage, in order to be able to leave comments. I wouldn’t want my clients to have to jump through as many hoops, as they are confronted with here. After reaching out to the Cage team, they confirmed that this will be changed very soon though. Clients will only be required to enter an email address then.
Pricing and availability
Comparing the application’s pricing to the main contenders, the Cage project management tool starts out with a monthly fee of 25 USD, with 2 team members, unlimited projects and reviewers, as well as 25 GB of Storage. The same price will give you 25 collaborators, no team members, but 50 GB of storage as well as unlimited projects on Frame.io, while Vimeo Pro will only set you back 16 USD per month, for a weekly 20GB, 3 team members and unlimited projects.
On the whole, the Cage team has made an commendable effort here and we hope they will be able to gear their video-specific features to attract even more happy customers from our field of work.
What do you think? Would you like to try the application yourself with a free trial and share your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.

There are loads of different motorized sliders out there. Big ones, small ones, complex ones, you name it. And yet, the guys at Smart View Intl’ thought that something is still missing. That’s why they’re introducing the Smartta SliderMini, a seemingly versatile and easy-to-use motorized slider for everyday use.
The Smartta SliderMini really is, just as its name suggests, mini. But it seems to be very capable, too. It’s app controlled, or, if you wish, by the press of a hardware button on the unit itself. It can carry up to 15kg (33 lbs), it fits into your pocket and the built-in 1500mAh Li battery lasts for about 48 hours. Sounds decent!
Smartta SliderMini
The company behind the SliderMini, Smart View, was just established recently and its first brand name is Smartta. Their social media pages went live around June 2018 and their first product, the SliderMini, is being heavily featured there. Since we at cinema5D are very into clever filmmaking tools which makes our lives (and daily jobs) easier, a review unit was requested (which will arrive soon!). So say tuned for a full-fledged review following this first look.
The SliderMini is just 26,2 cm (10.3″) in length and the resulting maximum camera travel is only 20,3 cm (8″) but I can tell you from experience that these 20 cm will make a difference! I used to own a giant 2 m (almost 80″) motorized silder so that thing was huge! And heavy! As a result, I barely used it on set and if I did, the actual camera travel almost never exeeded 50 cm.. I sold it in the end. So, 20 cm might not be a lot but in order to get that cinematic movement into your shot, it’s more than enough, most of the time.
The good thing is, this tiny slider can live in your bag all the time and you won’t even notice it. And if you need it, it’s right there. The max load capacity depends on the incline of your given shot. Pulling off a flat movement with a camera up to 15kg (33 lbs) isn’t a problem, and that’s quite the payload! For more angeled shots, the load capacity decreases drastically, but, and that’s pretty cool, you still can pull off a vertical slide with a light (1kg / 2.2lbs) camera package.
The whole unit consists of CNC machined aluminum with some stainless steel parts. In terms of speed the SliderMini is capable of very slow moves (6 µm/micrometer per second) up to its maximum speed of 1 cm/0.4″ per second. The slider just weights about 0,6 kg (1.25 lbs).
Controlling the SliderMini
The unit can be controlled in two ways, basically. If you’re a minimalist you can control the slider with nothing but a small button on the unit itself. Basic A/B moves and timelapses can be configured that way. For more advanced features you’ll need the Android/iOS app which connects via low-energy Bluetooth.
Programmed moves can be repeated, different timelapse modes can be loaded/tweaked/stored and moves can be transformed into stop-motion moves. The app seems to be pretty non-nerdy and easy-to-use. The beauty of such apps is their future-proofness: Features can be added over time, custom moves can be stored for later use and the slider will stay away from obsolescence a little longer.
A 3/8″ thread for mounting the slider on a tripod is located on the bottom of the unit, a camera (or smartphone holder) can be mounted via 3/8″ or 1/4″ screw to the top of the sliding carriage.
Pricing and Availability
We’re approaching the twist of this story. Although the company claims that
after a comprehensive research on motorized camera sliders in the market, SMART VIEW
found that most products were too expensive, bulky, complex and not user-friendly,
there’s no pricepoint defined for the SliderMini, yet. Instead, the Smartta SliderMini will be the subject of an imminent Indigogo crowdfunding campaign. If you’re interested, you can join a waitlist over at ismartta.com in order to receive a limited 50% off (!) discount once the campaign has launched.
UPDATE: The campaign is now live and the pricing looks interesting, indeed: Early Bird: $199 (that’s the aforementioned 50% off), regular campaign price: $259, MSRP once the campaign is over: $399.
Since other solutions seemed to be too expensive for the creators, this quite low price point is really impressive! For reference, the well-established Edelkrone SliderOne PRO is about $700. So this SliderMini is less than half the price but, to be fair, Edelkrone is a long-term innovater in the market while Smart view is a relatively fresh startup.
Links: ismartta.com | Indiegogo campaign page
What do you think of this new slider? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Lenser Viewfinder Simulator is a cost effective app that has a wide array of professional lens and camera systems for fast reference framing.
There’s always the need to share references compositions of a project – Discussions with the Director, a starting point for storyboard artists, references for Art and Lighting departments; it’s only natural that something as instant and ubiquitous as a smartphone would serve a suitable platform for sharing this information.
It’s why Viewfinder Simulator apps are popular nowadays – take some quick snaps on your phone – send to all.
Lenser approaches Viewfinder Simulation approaches from a cost-effective and easy-of-use angle.
At the time of writing, the £4.99 / $4.99 / € 5.49 price tag is considerably cheaper than other popular Viewfinder Simulator apps.
Features
Having downloaded Lenser and having a quick play, I can see that it is indeed very easy to use.
A settings page gives you three main options – pick you camera, pick you lenses, pick your aspect ratio and you’re good to go.
You also have a second aspect ratio to act as an overlay guide (useful if you’re shooting Spherical lenses and are cropping to 2.35:1 in post for example).
In Viewfinder mode you can quickly swipe through focal lengths within your lens package, there’s an overlay on the bottom providing spec of the lens including max T stop and close focus.
You can set up some favourite camera packages to switch between for quick comparison, as well as leave out a particular focal length in the swipe function (if you don’t have access to a full set of lenses).
There’s a great body of professional camera formats and lens packages (listed below). It’s nice to see the mindfield of different RED sensors and formats in there in a concise manner.
How accurate is it?
I did a fast and loose test with in house kit to see how accurate the app is on an iPhone Plus.
The Lenser app is designed by DP Spenser T. Nottage for the professional market, so is missing smaller mirrorless camera systems and stills lenses.
I was able to match the RED Dragon camera format, but had to match my Milvus lenses to ZEISS CP2s instead.
Accuracy is pretty good. It certainly does the job for getting things in the same ballpark.
I would never advise anybody trusting a viewfinder app down to the pixel, so in this regard Lenser certainly does it’s job.
Function
Lenser proudly claims a clean user interface. I would agree, everything is easy to access and simple, images are saved straight to your Camera Roll, making it easy to export images.
The camera integration is maybe something for development; it seems sometimes it auto exposes, other times it doesn’t. Same with focus (although I state this after only a couple of minutes trial, maybe I need time to understand it better).
Full list of compatible camera and lens formats can be found below:
This is an ongoing list, and the Lenser website suggests that requests for certain missing packages are always welcome.
Available on iOS devices, found here.

Multicolor LED lighting is a real thing nowadays. The CAME-TV RGBDT range of LED lights is no exception here. And these are available either in tube form or as foldable ring light. Portable, stackable, multicolor, controllable via app. That’s the future!
This new range of mutlicolor LED lights seems to be very interesting. As successors to the already available daylight balanced or bicolor tube lights, these new CAME-TV RGBDT lights are true multicolor devices. Same goes for the new RGBDT ring light which is also foldable, very neat!
CAME-TV RGBDT Multicolor LED lights
These new lights come in various shapes and sizes. The tube version will be availabe in either 1, 2, 3 or 4-feet length. The ring light has a diameter of about 30″ (76,5 cm) which is pretty big indeed. In order to transport this light, CAME-TV made it foldable. When folded up it’s basically half the size (and half a circle) which makes it much easier for transportation.
The cool thing about these CAME-TV RGBDT lights is their ability to emit any color of the spectrum. They come preloaded with the full spectrum of RGB hues and variable white balance values are also possible, of course. The light is being powered by either AC power or DC power. Your choice of Sony NP or V-Mount batteries can be used. Furthermore, and that’s really cool, you can stack several tube lights together and control them as a group. Up to 64 individual lights can be grouped together. Once grouped, you control the whole group with the supplied controller box or a smartphone app. But, and that’s even cooler, you also can control each light within a group seperately, again either with the controller box or your smartphone. That’s actually very neat! Just wire them up once and then control everything remotely by phone!
The device itself is pretty slim and it comes with a detachable barndoor in case you need it. Otherwise just slide it off and the light becomes even more portable and lightweight.
The ring light is basically the same device as the CAME-TV RGBDT tube lights, just with a different form factor. This makes the ring light a very versatile and portable solution for all kinds of colorful (or just white) effects.
Pricing and Availability
These lights are still prototypes (but working ones, as we could witness at NAB). They will become available around the end of May 2018. Pricing is not yet known, but since CAME-TV is known for very competitive prices, I assume this will not ruin you. We’ll have to wait until official pricing is announced to be certain, though.
Link: came-tv.com
Are you in the market for some versatile, portable multicolor LED lights? Share your thoughts about these new multicolor lights in the comments below!

We’ve already covered the frshly announced Ikan PIVOT 3-axis gimbal in this article. Now, at NAB 2018 in Las Vegas we had the chance to take a closer look at it. Natalie Cheng from Ikan walked us through this little, yet powerful, gimbal.
This little guy can hold (and operate) cameras with a weight of up to 8lbs (3,63kg)! Since that’s gonna be quite tough to hold, you can get order a additional dual handgrip as an accessory.
Ikan PIVOT 3-Axis Gimbal
The market for handheld 3-axis gimbal systems gets quite crowded these days. Manufacturers need to have some nice trick up their sleeves in order to attrackt potential customers. In Ikan’s case it is the high maximum payload of the Ikan PIVOT gimbal. It can hold up to 8lbs. As you can see in the vdeo above they’ve managed to operate a Canon C200 with it. Since this camera weights 3.2lbs (1,5 kg) you should be able to add a lens, a baseplate, some 15mm rods and even a wireless focus of some kind. Very neat!
The gimbal itself comes as a classic gimbal-on-a-stick with an angled roll axis in order to preserve a plain view on the back of the camera. Since this gimbal is meant to be used with small mirrorless cameras as well as DSLRs and even bigger cameras, such as the Canon C200, this concept might get pretty fatiguing pretty quickly. In order to distribute the weight a little more evenly, you can get the optional DGH dual grip handle from Ikan.
Ikan PIVOT gimgal with attached dual grip handle.
This grip handle comes with two little feet which provide a safe stand for your whole gimbal setup. For controlling the device you can download an app from the app store or the Google play store. With this app you can adjust all settings, e.g. the motor controls, comfortably from your smartphone.
Pricing and Availability
The Ikan PIVOT is available now and it costs around $750. Natalie reports that they just ran out of inventory but more PIVOTs are heading their way already so these should be available really soon.
This gimbal seems to be a very interesting device for indie filmmakers. A compact but very powerful handheld gimbal that even holds a camera in the league of a C200 or similarly sized camera? Pretty cool!
Links: Ikancorp.com
Do you think this could be a good addition to your gear bag? Share your thoughts in the comments below!